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A.M. Costa Rica Second newspage |
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to an exhibition in Montreal By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Canadians will soon be getting a view of pre-Columbian Costa Rican life. The Museo Pointe à Callière in Montreal will be mounting a show of some 258 pieces from the collection of the Museo Nacional. The show opens Nov. 2. An expert from the Canadian museum is in the country now going over the final details for the project. The exhibition will end April 19, said the museum here. The exhibition also will include a chronology of events in Costa Rica from 500 A.D. to the arrival of the Spanish. The museum said that 184 of the pieces have never been exhibited before including in Costa Rica. The majority have been acquired by the museum over the last 10 years. In addition to gold, the pieces are of ceramic, stone and jade. The Canadian museum is financing the entire project., which will be titled "Costa Rica: Land of Marvels." New, speedy trial system lets culprit off quickly By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A man with a metal bar attacked a woman near the bridge at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in Tibás this week and took her purse. Because a suspect was captured not far away, he became one of the first individuals to appear before the Tribunal Penal de Flagrancia. This is the court that is supposed to give quick treatment to those caught red-handed. In this case the man was a likely candidate because he had possessions of the woman on his person when arrested. The prosecutor asked a judge to jail the man for preventative detention because under the rules of the new, speedy process, the case should be resolved within five days. The judge, however, decided to allow the suspect to have conditional release. The prosecutor appealed, and a higher court agreed that jail was the appropriate place to hold the man to insure his participation in the rest of the process. The man already had been released. Two activities for kids Sunday on Cultures day By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Sunday is el Día de las Culturas, as Columbus Day is called in Costa Rica. Although the day is not a legal holiday here, there are activities Sunday, including a puppet show at the Teatro Eugene O’Neill in the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano in Los Yoses. The show is based on the book “Historias Cabécares” by Severiano Fernández and Varela Varas. The show begins at 11 a.m. and admission is 2,500 colons, about $4.50. The Cabécares are one of the country's native groups, and the book includes short stories about tribal traditions and life. At the Museos del Banco Central under the Plaza de la Cultura in the center of San José a Festival Pluricultural will be held mostly for children from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Monday is a legal holiday, Columbus Day, in the United States, so the U.S. Embassy here will be closed. Canadians mark Thanksgiving By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving, and Canadians here are celebrating the day Sunday at Rock 'n Roll Pollo in Santa Ana from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations are being taken at at 2232-5056. The dinner is 9,500 colons ($17.25 U.S.) for adults and 4,740 ($8.60) for children 10 and under, according to a club announcement. Car carried off victim of Heredia hit-and-run By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
A car struck down a 73-year-old Heredia man and carried the victim nearly a mile to the home of the driver, said investigators. The dead man was identified as Juan Francisco Arce Arroyo. The accident happened in San Rafael de Heredia. The Judicial Investigating Organization said that a suspect, identified by the last names of Villalobos Vargas, had been located and was being questioned. The hit-and-run driver apparently did not know that the man was still attached to the vehicle.
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A.M. Costa Rica third newspage |
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Costa Rica has many species
on environmental red list
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By Dennis Rogers
Special to A.M. Costa Rica Costa Rica takes a prominent spot in the 2008 Red List of Threatened Species. The Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature releases an assessment of species of animals and plants with enough information to determine their conservation status, with rankings from “least concern” through “endangered” to “critically endangered” and extinct. Holdridge’s Toad (Bufo holdridgei) was a small toad species known from a small area on Cerro Chompipe, an outlying cinder cone on the east side of Volcan Barva. It was quite common as recently as the 1970s but has not been seen since 1986. As its habitat has not been affected, the decline is considered likely to have been caused by chytridiomycosis, a fungus that grows on the skin of highland tropical amphibians. This history of sudden decline and extinction of an extremely localized species is nearly identical to that of the Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes), which was formerly common in the Monteverde forest reserve but has not been seen since 1989. It is often speculated that climate change caused that extinction, perhaps favoring the growth of the fungus, but there is no direct scientific evidence. Some 62 species of Costa Rica’s amphibians are listed under the various vulnerable categories, fully one-third of the total list for the country. These are mostly highland frogs and salamanders that are poorly known and considered threatened by chytridiomycosis. Another eight reptiles make the list, comprising sea turtles, two species of small fresh-water turtles, the American crocodile, and a localized species of iguana. About 18 species of birds breeding in mainland Costa Rica are considered to be of conservation concern. Four are classified as endangered. The great green macaw is endangered over its large range by habitat and food resource loss as well as some capture for the pet trade. Several species such as harpy eagle would be considered critically endangered in the Costa Rican part of their range, but survive in numbers elsewhere, Amazonia in the eagle’s case. The black-cheeked ant-tanager is found only in forest on the Osa Peninsula. This habitat is well-protected in Parque Nacional Corcovado National Park, but the bird continues to decline in nearby deforested and fragmented areas. “Somewhat paradoxically, as it becomes entirely confined to the protected areas, the extent of its range is |
Photo by Rick Anderson
The Honduran white bat is considered 'vulnerable' by the
Red List.
likely to stabilize and it will be reclassified as vulnerable,” states the red list account for the species. Both species are considered endangered given their small range and population size, with a restricted habitat. Mangrove destruction in Costa Rica has largely been arrested, but the habitat is by nature restricted to brackish waters in bays and river mouths and, therefore, localized and potentially at risk. Worldwide, the red list includes more than a third of the world’s mammals. Costa Rican mammals considered threatened or endangered include the large cats like jaguar as well as Baird’s tapir, threatened by habitat loss and hunting. The Central American squirrel monkey has had its habitat reduced to a few parks on the Pacific side of Costa Rica and Panamá. Several species of bats and rodents are poorly known. |
When the news get grim, it's time to retreat to the kitchen |
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During
tough times, personal or global, my solution is food. No, I don’t
want to eat it, I want to cook it or watch it being cooked. On 9/11,
sick at heart, after seeing the two towers collapse one too many times,
I switched the channel to Food Network and watched Mario Batali prepare
an Italian dinner. It was an oasis of peace and familiarity in a
world turned upside down. Back in March I wrote a column with my opinion that the U.S. was in a recession that would soon hit the rest of the world. Beginning last week the full force of the grim financial situation hit the States, this week the world. I keep heading for the kitchen. (I must confess, most often I start making fudge, but I don’t have much luck here getting it to the stage one can actually pick up the squares. I think it’s the altitude.) Today I decided upon something Italian. Preparing tomato sauce is very comforting to me. There is a package of scallops in my freezer. One day in better times I splurged and bought a package of frozen scallops. I had had them in a restaurant and craved them again. The price was stunning – nearly $12 a pound, but, gritting my teeth, I bought them rationalizing that they would make at least 10 meals for me. In another column about the pleasures of living alone, I said that you can splurge on a luxury food because you can buy small amounts, or, if you have to buy them by the kilo, they are still reasonable per serving. My scallops have been in the freezer a very long time as I nibble away at them. It seemed a good time to defy the gods of disaster by preparing something extravagant. I share the recipe with you because you can make it with shrimp (3 large ones will do) or even tuna, and there is enough sauce for two. In one frying pan sauté ½ finely chopped onion, one minced clove of garlic and salt in 2 TB olive oil. Don’t brown. Add one can tomato cubitos; simmer for 15 minutes. Wash and dry 3-4 scallops and cut in half horizontally. Sauté 1 clove garlic in a TB olive oil. Add scallops and |
cook for three minutes, turning them. Set aside. |
You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE! |
A.M. Costa Rica fourth news page |
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U.S. financial problems
reducing money being sent home
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By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services
Months of slowdown in the U.S. economy already have reduced the amount of money immigrants and foreign workers in the United States send to family in their home countries. Add to that the recent weeks of financial crisis that have shaken the international banking system. Official figures show migrant remittances are down worldwide. The Inter-American Development Bank, which studies Latin American and Caribbean economies, reported in March that the amount of money sent home by millions of Latin Americans working abroad grew at the slowest rate last year in nearly a decade. Partly attributing this to the economic downturn in the United States, the development bank reported that remittances to Brazil fell by 4 percent, while those to Mexico grew by only 1 percent. The total amount of money sent home last year by Latin Americans worldwide was still huge, about $66.5 billion, but many analysts and experts are concerned about the future outlook. Many Costa Rican families are dependent on money sent home from the United States and Canada by Ticos living there. Economist Walter Kemmsies said the decline in remittances from the United States, particularly to Mexico, makes sense. More than 20 percent of Mexican migrants work in the construction industry. "I suspect that a lot of the workers in the construction industry were illegal aliens, and as the industry slowed down, they originally just got rid of the workers who were of temporary status. That would explain a big chunk of the decline," he said. Kemmsies, chief economist at the infrastructure engineering firm Moffatt and Nichol, says economic hardships, as well as increased immigration enforcement, are contributing to the decline in remittances from the United States. Diana Rosario, a legal immigrant who came to the United States 12 years ago from the Dominican Republic, has always sent money and other necessities back to her family. But since losing her job recently at an education staffing firm, she is finding it harder and harder to support herself, much less send funds home. "I send everything that is possible to send to my poor family in the Dominican Republic. Whatever I collect from anywhere, I save it and I send it. And I usually send $200 every month, but now, with the economy down, I cut it down to half," she said. Many immigrants in the New York area say they have had to tighten their belts recently. One such immigrant is |
Albanian Sejdi
Husenaj, who says he has been particularly affected by the housing
market crisis. As the manager of a real estate company, Husenaj says
these are the worst economic times he has seen in the U.S. in 40 years
living here. "We've had to cut down on supporting our families by 50 percent, at least. It's not easy lately, because I have a father and stepmother in Kosovo I've been supporting for the past 30 years, and I have a brother, his wife and two of his children in Albania I've been supporting for the past four years." Kabir Syed, who works for an insurance services firm in New York, does not send money back to India on a regular basis. However, he said he has been saving for a rainy day, like many other Indians living in the United States. Syed said he does not think the Indian community here will be as heavily hit as other immigrant groups. Of all migrant workers around the world, Indians send the largest amounts of money home. "Most Indians save a lot traditionally, and they send a certain amount, so it's not going to be a huge impact on the renumeration, because they do it on a monthly basis. So it's not going to impact severely like it happens in the Mexican immigrant community, because those are mostly hourly or construction workers, so they are really hit very hard," Syed said. Economist Kemmsies says more and more New Yorkers will soon feel the effects of the bankruptcies, mergers and consolidations rippling through the financial sector, particularly the many immigrants who work in service industries. "The people who work on Wall Street spend a lot on services. They're the ones who use the dry cleaning services, they go out and eat and enjoy the many restaurants in the city. They spend a lot of money on entertainment. So as their spending really declines, then all of these other industries that are dependent on Wall Street — the supporting industries — they all have to take a hit," he said. Global remittances from foreign workers make up an estimated $300 billion a year, three times as much as the foreign aid paid out by governments in the developed world. The biggest share of this, over $42 billion, comes from immigrants working in the United States. As big as those sums are, Kemmsies says, they are probably underestimated, since quite a few foreign workers send banknotes back to their home countries by mail. Those envelopes may become thinner and thinner in the coming months. |
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called biggest safety threat Special to A.M. Costa Rica
Drug trafficking and the violence committed by its associated organized crime is the biggest threat to public safety in the Americas, according to the executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. “As a hemisphere, the Americas face the world’s biggest drug problem,” said the director, Antonio Maria Costa, at the first-ever gathering of the ministers responsible for public safety of the Americas, during their meeting Wednesday in Mexico City. Costa added that “whether we measure it in hectares of cultivation, tons of production, its market value or even by the gruesome number of people killed in the dirty trade,” the drug crisis affecting the security of the ordinary people in the area is huge. “Your citizens indeed say that what they fear the most is not terrorism, not climate change, not a financial crisis. It is public safety. And in the Americas, the biggest threat to public safety comes from drug trafficking and the violence perpetrated by organized crime,” he said. Costa pointed out that urban violence in the United States, biker gangs in Canada, the brutality and kidnapping in Mexico, the insurgency in Colombia and gangs in Brazilian shantytowns, Central America and the Caribbean are all connected to drug crime. Drug-related crime has turned some neighbourhoods into combat zones, observed Costa, as he urged municipal authorities to play a greater role in enhancing security for their citizens. “Experience shows that pro-poor housing reform, youth programmes, rejuvenation of public spaces, widening access to public services and introducing public surveillance technology can create safer cities,” he said. Citing an Office on Drugs and Crime report on the threat of narco-trafficking in the Americas, Costa explained that the continent differs from other drug-infested regions because drug demand is largely satisfied with supply, as South America produces almost all of the world’s cocaine and North America consumes half of it while most of the rest goes to Europe. Although some progress had been made in reducing the supply of narcotics, with cocaine production in Andean countries well below the levels of a decade ago, Costa noted that the demand for drugs remains constant. “Until the number of cocaine users falls worldwide, the problems caused by narco-trafficking will be displaced (as we are now seeing in West Africa) rather than solved,” he said. Also attending the meeting was Janina del Vecchio, minister of Gobernación, Policía y Seguridad Pública in Costa Rica. |
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